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BTW, What’s the 411 on Phone Use? – 12/10/2012

IT’S NOT JUST A PHONE ANYMORE; it’s a way of life. As smartphones offer new features and apps, we depend on them even more.

The National Center for Health Statistics reported more than a third of American households had only wireless phones in 2011.

The use of cellphones keeps increasing, along with the expectation that we’ll respond instantly to a text message or phone call. Radiologic technologists starting out in the clinical world have to adjust their expectations.

“It is a challenge for some,” said Bil Heath, B.S., R.T.(R), a clinical coordinator for radiologic technology at Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, S.C., and treasurer of the South Carolina Society of Radiologic Technologists.

Bil shared a story to help students understand why they can’t carry cellphones in their pockets into exam rooms.

“I had a student whose cellphone went off while she was assisting with an upper GI [exam], and the student answered it!” Bil said. Radiologists and technologists were present. “It didn’t go well for the student,” he added.

Distraction and patient privacy are the main drivers of zero-tolerance policies that ban cellphone use by employees in most hospital clinical areas and radiology departments.

Cellphones and other electronic communication devices usually must be turned off and stored while employees are working and used in private during lunch and breaks.

Bil said this type of policy is the norm for his students’ clinical sites. If a student has a compelling reason, such as a family emergency, to have his or her cellphone on, it must be cleared through him first. “It’s still the clinical site’s call,” Bil said.

A zero-tolerance policy might ban cellphone use even in an emergency. This might sound harsh, but you always can give the radiology department’s main number to family members, child care providers or others who need to reach you immediately. If your department doesn’t have a procedure in place for reaching employees in family emergencies, participate in crafting one.

It also helps to let friends and family know that you might not get back to them right away on work days, and that you’ll text or call back on your breaks. That can ease your compulsion to respond immediately and might prevent you from spending your entire break listening to 10 voice messages.

On another topic, Bil offered a useful tip. Don’t post negative comments about your workplace on social media sites, as one of his students did a few years ago.

“When the dust finally settled, that student knew there would be no need to apply at that hospital for a job after graduation.”